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Under The Ring Interview With Dusty Rhodes

Posted: Nov 11th 2009 By: CMBurnham

I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with one of the all-time great legends in professional wrestling, "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes at Collector's Realm in Poughkeepsie on Saturday.

These days, Dusty is running the creative team at Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), a WWE developmental territory and is enjoying watching both of his sons, Dustin (a.k.a. Goldust) in ECW and Cody on Raw.

We touched on a number of topics. Dusty was sure to complement all the Yankees fans who got autographs and photos from him as the Dream is a big Yankees fan and a friend of the Steinbrenner family. The Steinbrenners used to watch him wrestle at the Armory in Tampa and the Boss himself ? George Steinbrenner ? wrote the forward for Dusty's biography.

Thanks to the staff at Collector's Realm, including owner Joe Sinforoso, for the access and their hospitality and to Dusty, himself, for agreeing to the interview. Thanks, as always, to Michael O'Brien of Northeast Wrestling. Also thanks to Joe DeSario for snapping the photo.

Phil Strum: First off, how's everything going with you. You're working in FCW (Florida Championship Wrestling) now. How's that going?

Dusty Rhodes: It's going good, you know. I work for WWE in the creative department and they have me down on that project at FCW ?it's developmental and doing interviews, creative with young kids and doing TV shows and stuff. That's going good. I enjoy that. A lot of fun.

PS: Do you like that aspect of the business, kind of being able to build it from the ground up and see some of these guys when they're breaking in?

DR: Yeah. I think OVW, before they closed down, I think the last big star, that's going to be an even bigger star that's come out of there, was Cody Rhodes. He came out of OVW. Then shortly after that was when they moved it all down here (FCW). Since then, with Yoshi (Tatsu) and Sheamus and Tyler Reks and the list goes on and on and on. Drew McIntyre and all these kids. Savannah, the girls. It's great to see them and work with them in our studio where we do the promo studio, kind of like the actors studio, and work on conversations. So it's really cool, working with them. And then the TV shows and seeing them get there. That's their dream. We really need new blood. WWE needs new blood. I think we've started with Legacy and now you've seen Evan Bourne and you've seen Miz and you've seen (John) Morrison and CM Punk. It's a great thing to see this new rush of talent.

PS: How difficult is it to develop new talent? Obviously, when you were breaking into the business, it was a lot of the territories and if you kind of wore out your welcome somewhere, you could go somewhere else. You've worked all over the place.

DR: At FCW, it's run by Steve Keirn and the trainers ? Dr. Tom Prichard and Norman Smiley ? and guys like that. Ricky Steamboat's been in all week. We have guests and teachers and creative people there all the time. Thursday nights ? we run every Thursday night, it's TV: Three one-hour shows. Then, they run Friday nights and Saturday nights, so it's kind of like a small little territory, so that's good. The kids are being able to get out in public and learn their trade. Even if there's 30 people there, it doesn't matter. You can do it in the ring and practice all day long, but if you're not in front of people, like the old days, that's where we learned. We learned it in the car, talking about it.

PS: I was going to ask, in the 1970s, you got to work in New York. You got to work for Vince McMahon, Sr. You've main evented Madison Square Garden with Superstar Billy Graham. What was that experience like? I guess you had probably been in Florida before that?

DR: Yeah. I had been in Florida when TBS came to play with Turner, at 6:05 on Saturday night. It became a national phenomenon around the country. People still watched it until the late 90s and 2000, at 6:05 on Saturday night. It was cool. The Garden was where you wanted to be, where you wanted to play. I was blessed enough. It was funny. The Florida tapes that came in, bootlegged into New York, wasn't bootlegged. It was on the Spanish station and it was on Saturday night and it was like a cult following. It was like Elvis when I came in there and they hadn't seen me before, except for that.

PS: They all knew who you were.

DR: They had not seen the events, but it was just amazing. That was really some highlights. Our three Garden matches, with me and Superstar Billy Graham. And then I was there in '76, '77, '78 with other guys. That was cool.

PS: You guest hosted Raw a couple of weeks ago with your son and Legacy. What do you think of the current product right now and how do you like contributing to it?

DR: You mean besides them kicking my (butt) at the end of the night there? I think it's the way that WWE wants the vision to be. I think it's entertainment. These kids are movie stars. The European tours right now are doing phenomenal business this week. I think that it's the excitement. He says, and I mean Vince (McMahon), he says he puts smiles on peoples' faces. I think the old days that we knew, even though a lot of guys wanted to go back there, it's never going to go back there. These guys are movie stars. You see how they look. You see the Cody Rhodeses and the DiBiases and the Morrisons. These are movie stars. This is not Freddie the Dumpster and guys like that. He treats them like that and he wants the public to treat them like that. I think it's in a direction that's modern. Sports are modernized in all shapes and forms, whether it's the Super Bowl or whatever. Now, cities bid on WrestleMania. They bid the get the WrestleMania and they don't even know what the matches are yet. I guarantee, we're sitting here right now, they probably sold out whatever they were allotted. It opened up this morning. There you go.

PS: How about your two sons both on the roster now?

DR: Dustin's doing really well, too.

PS: Yeah, he really is.

DR: He's had a long run. He's got himself in shape and he's having the best run. And he's there to help young kids too. Then of course, he tells me, he calls me and says, 'Dad, you know we've got to get an appointment to talk to Cody.' You've got to go through four or five people to get a hold of him. It's pretty cool.

PS: What are your thoughts on the legacy of WCW. I know you joked about it a little bit on Raw with the DX segments and they were lighthearted. and whatnot.

DR: I liked them. I think it was a cool time. You can't take away from it. You're a fan, obviously, of that era too. Or you studied it. You've watched tapes and you've seen it. You've seen it change. If everything remained the same, it wouldn't be no fun. It wouldn't be no good. I loved my era. I thought it was the best. I thought Crockett was the best. During that period of time, I thought the NWA was the cat's meow and that's was what was going on. The times changed. You have to change with them. Luckily, I've been able to do that.

PS: Do you take offense when people talk about the death of WCW?

DR: No. No. It would be like spending 43 years in the business and a year-and-a-half, I wore polka dots. For 40 years, I didn't, you know what I mean? Funny thing about that, we always laugh about it, me and Vince because I had one of my biggest years in that year-and-a-half I with him.

PS: I'm sure.

DR: I had a pretty good time.

PS: You made it to WrestleMania at the SkyDome.

DR: There you go!

PS: Going back to FCW a little bit, one thing a lot of wrestlers seem to struggle with nowadays is expressing themselves in promos. Obviously, that's something you never had a problem with. Where did you ever come up with all the stuff you would say in interviews? Some people say, 'Dusty Rhodes ? he had the best rap of all time.'

DR: I think it was where I grew up. I think using the radio, the music, the creativity of TV and watching movies and then applying that to modern times and what was happening. I'd be talking about Moms Mabley back then. People like that. Me and Bobby D. (Bob Dylan). Which was true. We hung out in New York City. Bob Dylan. I would say Bobby D, he's got really cool hits. Cool stuff. I just kind of used what was modern. I try to teach the kids now, the young kids, to be conversational, but have their personality come out. Sometimes, it's not going on up there. They have to go up there and the company has to let them be who they are. There are not going to be no more Rocks, no more Austins. They've got to have that personality, along with the way the vision is of the company.

PS: This is a question I asked Kevin Nash when he was here a few months ago.

DR: Yeah. How he worked one time in a year and how he made all that money? Kevin Nash worked one time in a year and made $6 million dollars. Did you ask him that? I'd like to know how to do that, myself.

PS: Seriously though, the question that I did ask him...

DR: I was serious about that! (We both laugh) What did you say? What was it?

PS: What was it like the first time you won the world title?

DR: It's a moment. People talk about our business being entertainment. People talk about our business being a work. They talk about all these things they've talked about. But for that one moment, that moment, it almost takes your breath away. Because there's 700 or 800 kids around, during my era, that were trying to get in the industry. Wahoo McDaniel would have died to wear that belt for one hour. Guys like that. Great athletes. It's a huge deal. You finally get to your room. You see it. You've got to kind of remind yourself where you're at. It's a big deal. It was a big deal.

PS: You've pretty much worked every territory there's ever been, including today's territories ? WWE, TNA, Ring of Honor. What do you think the business has to do to stay vital and stay competitive in the marketplace?

DR: I think competitive. The key word you just had is competitive. Even if you've got to compete against yourself. I think with the brands the way they are ? even with FCW as a small brand ? but it's part of the branded WWE Universe. With the ECW, SmackDown, Raw brands, there's three or four different football teams here. Out of necessity, we're competing against ourselves because he owns the rest of the world. WWE owns the world. I'd love to see someone do well, whether it be Ring of Honor or whoever. You seem to compete better when you have competition. I know I was at my best when I had competition and I know Mr. McMahon's at his best when he has competition.

PS: What's the future hold for Dusty Rhodes now?

DR: Just keep on keeping on, being blessed. Watching my kids. Hoping Cody will become world heavyweight champion soon. Big deal for me. You know, it might happen.

PS: Thank you very much.

Tags: Dusty Rhodes, WWE, ECW, WCW, NWA, Wahoo McDaniel, TNA